2010 confirmed speakers include

Leadership keynotes from:

Rene Carayol, Former senior executive and board member of Pepsi, Marks & Spencer, IPC Media and the Inland Revenue

Jim Lawless, Motivational leader and International Author, Taming Tigers

Don Linsenmann, VP – Business Process Excellence & Corporate Champion, DuPont Six Sigma

Plus inspirational deployment insights from leading lights in the Lean Six Sigma industry:

Rusty Patterson Chairman of the Board Shingo Prize (Former VP Raytheon Business Excellence)	Laurel Lebauve VP Merck Sigma Merck
Jim Cosco VP & Chief Quality Officer, Home Networks & Mobility Motorola	Dan Kovacs Executive Director Lean Six Sigma Seagate Technology
Chuck Chada Corporate VP Lean Six Sigma Strategic Initiatives Xerox	Susan Huthmaker VP Operational Excellence SimplexGrinnell
Tami Hargreaves Head of Professional Services & Development, COO Office Barclaycard	Alan Simpson Executive Director Global Business Improvement, Medical Device Diagnostic Group, J&J
Alan Demers VP & CQO American Express	Rhidian Roach Director of Lean Depuy (J&J Company)
Dave McSherry CFO ACPO	Gary Thomas Director Continuous Improvement & Operational Risk HJ Heinz
Steve Klis Senior Vice President Global Customer Support CareFusion	Mark Aesch CEO Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority
John Pieno Chairman Florida Sterling Council	Ginger Riewe CFO Community Health Center of Lubbock
Ric Joyner CEO Eflexgroup.com	John Marushin Director AOMC Alcoa
Steve Park EVP/B.B./ALCPA Kyobo Life	Steve Towers Founder & CEO BP Group & International BPM Author BP Group
Roy Madsen Senior Advisor to the CFO & Director LSS Comptroller of the Currency	Mark Barnett SVP, Process Design Manager Bank of America
Dave Birkemeier VP Manufacturing Lifetouch Production Inc	Jorge Pica Deputy Director Operations & Manufacturing Technology Lead Lockheed Martin
Don Smith Director International Process and Performance Institute (IPAPI)	LT Dennis Narlock Airspeed CPI Officer, Fleet Readiness Center Southwest US Navy
Kevin Elsberry VP Operations & Engineering EFI Electronics by Schneider Electric	Duane Hunt Sr Manager, Business Process Excellence AFLAC
Joseph C Liu Development Technologist Seagate Technology	Michelle Johnson Executive Director (Training & Development) Textron
Diane Francisco Associate Director Lean Six Sigma Covance The Disney Institute Copyright Notice, © Disney	Nick Turk Director Six Sigma Bridgestone Americas
Keven Carpenter Quality Leader GE Capital	Erika Westbay Program Director BPM The Nature Conservency
Mr. Lou Cabrera SES National Guard Bureau	Michael Ptasienski Director of Management Advisory Services, Office of the Inspector General U.S. House of Representatives

Plus learn from strategies and innovative approaches from world leading advisors

• Glenn Leask, President, Competitive Capabilities International (CCI)
• Tony Gardner, Senior Executive, Accenture
• Shubber Ali, Senior Manager, Accenture
• Bryan Carey, SVP Strategic Consulting, CSI
• Jarad Hillam, VP Business Intelligence, CSI
• Jeff DeLayne Stroud, MBB, CSI Deleeuw
• Ashhesh Malhortra, Principal Consultant, Business Process Improvement Practice, Wipro Consulting Services
• Mark George, MD, Process & Innovation Performance Group, Accenture
• Monika Painter, IBM
• John Rodgers, Managing Director, SSA & Company
• Bahadir Inozu, Ph.D., CEO, NOVACES
• Dan Chauncey, Director of Deployment Services, NOVACES
• Phil McIntyre - Director of Business Development for Milliken Performance Solutions
• David Rowland - Director Emeritus for the Milliken Performance System
• Chris Glover - Practitioner for the Milliken Performance Solutions Business
• Ian Morrison, CEO, Hagen & Company Inc
• SSA
• Quality Group
• Wipro

Speaker Biographies

Alan Demers
Vice President and Chief Quality Officer
American Express

Alan joined American Express on June 1, 2004 as Vice President - Projects & Quality and assumed his new role of Chief Quality Officer in January 2007. In this role, Alan is responsible for driving operational excellence through the integration of Six Sigma across American Express. This includes implementation of critical business metrics and ongoing end-to-end process reviews, ensuring quality tools are used extensively throughout the organization, building quality frameworks around all critical projects, and linking Six Sigma design efforts to business unit strategies and reengineering efforts. Previously Alan held positions in General Electric where he lead the securitization operations team for the company, commercial card operations and served as Quality Leader & MBB for various business including private label credit cards and Capital Markets. His experience spans various disciplines including a military aviator, manufacturing manager and financial services executive. He has worked abroad in Europe and Japan. Alan has held positions of increasing responsibility and leadership all focused on quality based management and the improvement of business processes. He has been a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt since 1999.

Laurel LaBauve
Vice President, Merck Sigma and Business Operations
Merck

Laurel LaBauve, Vice President, Merck Sigma and Business Operations, has been with Merck since 2006. She is responsible for building and implementing a global program that ensures Lean, Six Sigma, Change Management and Enterprise Process Management are part of the company's 'DNA'. Prior to joining Merck, she was the Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Operations at IDEXX Laboratories, a veterinary diagnostics company. While there, she was responsible for incorporating Sigma methodology in the areas of manufacturing, procurement, supply chain, new product introduction facilities, and creating a company-wide Six Sigma program. Before joining IDEXX, Laurel held positions of increasing responsibility at Ortho-Clinical Diagnostics, a $1 billion division of Johnson & Johnson. Her roles included Vice President and General Manager of the Clinical Laboratory Franchise, Vice President of Systems R&D and Vice President of Design Excellence. Laurel gained her early experience with Six Sigma at AlliedSignal where she was Vice President, Six Sigma Quality and Director of Technical Excellence. She started her career at Martin Marietta as a manufacturing engineer. She holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University.

Jim Cosco
Vice President and Chief Quality Officer
Motorola Home & Networks Mobility

Jim Cosco is Vice President and chief quality officer for Motorola Home & Networks Mobility (H&NM). He is responsible for leading quality, customer loyalty and business process improvement initiatives for H&NM, including the Customer Loyalty program, TL 9000 certification, M-Gates and Lean/Six Sigma. He drives a quality culture that delivers greater customer satisfaction and improved financial results.

Cosco joined Motorola in February 2008 from Washington Mutual Bank (WAMU) where he was senior vice president of Retail Bank Operational Strategy. He held several senior-level positions at WAMU and was responsible for the entire corporate process improvement (Lean/Six Sigma) program. The program enabled the company to dramatically improve its customer experience, quality and efficiency. Prior to financial services, Cosco spent 10 years in the United States Air Force and nine years with AlliedSignal/Honeywell Aerospace where he held various positions of increased responsibility with engineering, manufacturing, quality and process improvement and operations leadership concentration.

Cosco has over 24 years experience managing and fundamentally improving operations in leading companies within the defense and aerospace manufacturing and financial services industries. He is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean expert and has designed and deployed continual process improvement programs at several major public companies.

Chuck Chada
VP Lean Six Sigma Strategic Initiatives
Xerox

Chuck Chada is Vice President of Lean Six Sigma Strategic Initiatives for Xerox Corporation, a $17B Fortune 500 Company that provides leading document management technology and services for a global customer base. In this role, Chuck works both externally and internally to identify leading edge thinking and implement Xerox’s strategic direction for Lean Six Sigma through a network of Business Transformation leaders representing all major operations. The goal of the strategy is to enable the required cultural change and drive improvements in Xerox business results by ensuring that Lean Six Sigma principles are integrated into both the day-to-day operations and the strategic direction of the organization. During his 30+ years with Xerox, Chuck has had key assignments in Product Development, Sales Marketing and Supply Chain Operations. He has had accountability for the development and implementation of Customer Experience Management Systems, was part of the winning Baldrige effort and currently represents Xerox on external quality improvement boards.

Dan Kovacs
Executive Director Business Excellence
Seagate Technology

Dan has served as the Executive Director, Business Excellence, corporate deployment at Seagate since January 2005. He is responsible for the functional strategy and oversight of Business Excellence across all functions/departments. He has been employed with Seagate since 1998 and formerly held management positions at Digital Equipment Corporation and Booz, Allen and Hamilton. He was trained as a Six Sigma Green Belt and Black Belt, and holds a BS in chemical engineering and an MBA. Seagate received the ISSSP Leadership Award in 2008 for demonstrated commitment to the area of business process improvement.

Duane Hunt
Sr Manager, Business Process Excellence
AFLAC

In his current role as Senior Manager of Business Process Excellence at Aflac, Duane Hunt directs the disciplines of quality management and process optimization for Internal Operations. As a consultant and business leader, Duane has successfully delivered operational management, quality and process optimization engagements across a diverse range of industries for a host of multi-national, Fortune 500 companies including Aflac, GE Capital, EDS, Eastman Kodak and Bank of America. Recent consulting engagements also included an opportunity to work at the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Duane holds degrees in Business Management and Computer Graphics Design, and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with Master Black Belt qualifications. Duane is also a board member of the Quality Assurance and Training Connection, and a Programs Chair for the West Georgia section of the American Society of Quality. Duane is honored to have been the recipient of the 1999 ITSMA New Services Innovation Award and the 2000 Better Business Bureau’s Award for Services Excellence.

Mark Aesch
CEO
Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority (RGRTA)

Under his leadership at the RGRTA, multi-million dollar deficits have been eradicated and replaced with multi-million dollar surpluses, reliance on taxpayer subsidies has been reduced, demand for service has increased at rates three times the national average, and in an unprecedented move, the fare at the Authority’s largest subsidiary has been lowered after remaining stable for over a decade. Prior to his appointment as CEO in 2004, Aesch served as Executive Director for the Renaissance Square Corporation, a quarter-billion dollar construction project in the heart of Rochester, NY; as Chief of Staff for the RGRTA; as District Director for US Representative Bill Paxon; and as Assistant to the Town Supervisor in a mid-sized suburban town. He began his career working for several years in the Career Development Office of a public university and as a sports producer for a Rochester television station.

John Marushin
Director AOMC
Alcoa

Since 2001, John Marushin has held the position of Director, Alcoa Operations Management Consulting (AOMC) for Alcoa and is responsible for proliferating Alcoa Business System (ABS) knowledge throughout Alcoa’s 26 businesses in over 200 locations in 31 countries worldwide. Alcoa is the world leader in the production and management of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum and alumina. Alcoa serves the aerospace, automotive, packaging, building and construction, commercial transportation, and industrial markets. Trained by the Toyota Motor Corporation - Japan, as an expert in "Toyota Production System" methodology through actual projects in both North America and Japan, John's abilities and successes did not go unnoticed, and in 1992 he was recruited by Mr. Hajime Oba to launch the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC), Toyota's internal consulting division within the United States. Since leaving Toyota, John has developed a proven business improvement approach on how to work with people to change their work environment to continuously improve - driving business performance, while maintaining the target company’s identity that the enterprise was built on.

Joseph C Liu
Development Technologist
Seagate Technology

Joe earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, with a minor in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined Control Data's disk drive subsidiary (acquired by Seagate in 1989) in 1982 and was instrumental in developing various test and measurement methods for design and product quality assurance. He holds 23 patents.

When Seagate began Design for Six Sigma engagement in 2000, he was trained as a design MBB and led the DfSS deployment effort for Seagate's Asia Pacific facilities. In 2002, Seagate delivered the first consumer electronics hard disc drive designed using DfSS methodology, where Joe was the MBB attached to the development program. The program won IQPC Six Sigma Excellence Award 2004 for "Best DfSS Project of the Year." Since 2005, Joe has been responsible for sustaining the DfSS initiative and expanding the company's Business Excellence practices: DMAIC Six Sigma, DfSS, Lean and Design for Reliability, into Seagate's technology and product development organizations in the US and overseas.

Steve Klis
Senior Vice President Global Customer Support
CareFusion

Steve Klis has over 24 years experience in the healthcare technology sector, including positions of increasing responsibilities within CareFusion. Steve joined CareFusion over 6 years ago as the Area Vice President of Hospital Sales for Alaris Medical. Following that assignment, Steve led strategic sales integration for the Medication Technologies business unit. For the past 2 years, Steve has led the Customer Support Operations group, most recently expanding this role to include all Global Customer Support functions. Prior to joining CareFusion, Steve lead the sales and service teams at TAB Information Management Solutions, and, at Siemens Medical Solutions, focusing on delivering integrated IT solutions and consulting services to hospitals and healthcare systems.

Alan Simpson
Executive Director of Business Improvement, Medical Device & Diagnostics Group
Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is a diversified healthcare company that is organized into three business groups: Consumer Products, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices. The Medical Device & Diagnostic group has increased the rate of cost improvement substantially during his tenure. Alan’s team enables business improvements across the Value Chains from Suppliers to End Users. His team has developed and deployed a systematic process re-engineering methodology that has delivered break through results. Prior to his current role in Johnson & Johnson, Alan was the Lean Program Manager and a member of the Europe Operations leadership Team. Alan has also served as the Senior Business Unit Manager of the General Wound Care Business. Prior to Johnson & Johnson, Alan served as Operations Manager and Lead Project Engineer for Kimberly-Clark Corporation in their US based Infant and Child Care businesses. Alan garnered Practical Lean Thinking and Level 5 leadership (as highlighted by the classic book “Good to Great”).

Ginger Riewe
CFO
Community Health Center of Lubbock

Community Health Center of Lubbock (CHCL) is a Federally Qualified Health Center that provides primary medical, dental, and mental health services to those medically underserved. CHCL has approximately 160 employees with 5 locations and one mobile medical unit and one mobile dental unit. CHCL has been working toward Lean / Six Sigma as a new culture for the organization for the last three + years. Many of the key management staff has received Green Belt training in addition to several Lean trainings including 5S, Honshin Kanri, Process Mapping, PDCA (A3), and Kaizen Teian. Ginger Riewe, MBA, CPA has been with CHCL for 14 years. As the CFO, the reinforcement of the importance of Lean / Sigma activities to the staff and the assistance in how to gather the data to show the results of their efforts helps staff understand the importance and how great an impact they are having on the organization. These positive impacts enable CHCL to grow and provide more access to healthcare which is the reason community health centers exist.

Steve Towers
Founder & CEO BP Group & International BPM Author
BP Group

Steve is the founder of the Business Process Group (www.bpgroup.org) a global business club (originally formed 1992) exchanging ideas and best practice in Business Performance Management, Transformation and Process Improvement. He leads from the front and works with many of the leading fortune 500 companies as a mentor and coach specializing in the implementation of performance improvement, process change and transformation. An inspirational speaker and author of several books including “A Senior Executives guide to BPR”, “In Search of BPM Excellence”, “Thrive! How to Succeed in the Age of the Customer” and recently “Customer Expectation Management – Success without Exception” he is noted for his direct and pragmatic approach. Steve previously worked for Citibank where he led restructuring and business process transformation programs both in the US and Europe. Steve advises many boards and sits on the steering panel of the influential California based BPM Forum, a group of distinguished C-Level executives heading up Global 500 companies.

Susan Huthmaker
Vice President Operational Excellence
SimplexGrinnell

Ms. Huthmaker was named Vice President Operational Excellence for SimplexGrinnell in September, 2008. In this role, she leads the Lean Six Sigma, Sourcing, Real Estate and Fleet teams at SimplexGrinnell. Ms. Huthmaker joined SimplexGrinnell in 2007 as the Director of Six Sigma. In this role, she was responsible for leading a team of professionals to implement enterprise-wide process improvements in the contracting and service sectors of the company. Ms. Huthmaker has over 15 years of leadership and management experience across a number of functional disciplines including sales, marketing, finance, strategic planning, EH&S, customer service, IT and manufacturing. She is a trained Black Belt. Ms. Huthmaker holds a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering from Auburn University and a Master degree in Business Administration from Harvard University.

Rhidian Roach
Director of Lean
Depuy (J&J Company)

Rhidian Roach is the Director of Lean for the DePuy Franchise within the Johnson and Johnson family of companies. He has 25 years experience with J&J and started his career as a Manufacturing Operator in the UK with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics. Since that time he has held various roles within Operations and Process Excellence for OCD, Cordis Corporation and the Medical Devices & Diagnostics Sector of Johnson and Johnson. Rhidian is a Lean Master Blackbelt and has been with DePuy since the beginning of 2009. He has a proven track record of generating significant business results using a systematic approach and is responsible for driving efficiency improvements across the business in both operational and non operational areas

John Rodgers
Managing Director, Financial Services Practice Leader
SSA & Company

John Rodgers is a Managing Director at SSA & Company, delivering operational excellence and business transformation training and execution services. As a Managing Director, he focuses on leading Lean Six Sigma deployments at multiple companies ranging in size from $100 million to over $100 billion in revenue, including General Electric, Ford Motor Company, DuPont, Toyota Financial Services, Country Financial and IKON Office Solutions. Most recently he served as the lead architect for SSA’s next-stage model for process improvement, Strategic Process Management. Prior to joining SSA & Company in 2002, Mr. Rodgers was the Global Director of Consumer Driven 6-Sigma for Ford Motor Company – Marketing, Sales, and Service Group. He began his Six Sigma career at GE Capital, where he was certified as a Black Belt and Master Black Belt. Since then, he has guided Six Sigma deployments at large companies, including DuPont, Noranda, and Toyota Financial Services and has delivered training to more than 300 green belts and black belts. Prior to GE Capital, Mr. Rodgers spent 9 years in the insurance industry with Aetna and Cigna. He received his BA in Business Management and Psychology from Eureka College. He lives in Morris, Illinois with his wife and three daughters.

Tami Hargreves
Head of Professional Services and Development
Barclaycard

Tami Hargreaves, Head of Professional Services and Development, Barclaycard Tami joined Barclaycard on February 11, 2008 and is currently Head of Professional Services and Development across Barclaycard’s Global Change Division. The Global Change Division includes a Change Management Practice; Testing Practice; Business Design Analyst Practice and a Process Improvement Practice ensuring Lean and Six Sigma underpin the critical optimization projects across Barclaycard’s global footprint. This has included rolling out an ‘Obsessed’ about process programme which embedded Lean Six Sigma methodology into the core of the operational environments to enable sustainable and continuous process improvement. Other areas of focus include developing a world class Professional Services Team which includes best practice capability uplift and has recently led the set up of a Global Centre of Excellence for Analytics in New York. Previously Tami held positions in Vertex Data Science Ltd, the UK’s second largest Customer Outsourcing Management organisation, where she held a number of roles involving the strategic outsourcing of contracts across Private Sector, Utilities and Public Sector Markets, delivering multi million pound transformation and efficiency programmes including improved customer experience through extensive process re-engineering.

Keven Carpenter
Quality Leader
GE Capital

Keven Carpenter is the Lean Six Sigma & Analytics Leader of GE Capital, Americas. This business provides financing for equipment, inventory and franchises; fleet services and M&A, buyout and restructuring capital to companies in over 40 industries, including healthcare. Prior to his current role, Keven was the Lean Six Sigma & Analytics leader for GE Capital, Equipment Finance Services. He began his career at GE in 1998 as a member of the Operations Management Leadership Program and served in a variety of operational roles. In 2000, Keven joined the Corporate Audit Staff where he performed several global audits including Japan, Europe and India. He became a certified Black Belt in 2001. In 2004, Keven became the Collections and Analytics Leader for GE Capital Solutions, Vendor Finance where he drove strategic initiatives aimed at delinquency and loss reduction. Shortly thereafter, he launched the Operations Analytics & Reporting Team focused on driving growth through customer touch points.

Mr. Lou Cabrera
SES
National Guard Bureau

Louis A. (“Lou”) Cabrera, a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES), is a native of Los Angeles, California, and was selected as the Assistant Chief and Comptroller, National Guard Bureau, in November 2008. Mr. Cabrera exercises full responsibility for the development, administration, and implementation of policy, and directs resources and associated funding necessary to support the National Guard Bureau mission. The Office of the Assistant Chief and Comptroller, National Guard Bureau consists of the Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting (PARC), Athletics and Youth Development/Youth Challenge Program, the Operational Contracting Division (Acquisition), the responsibility for the career management of the NGB Acquisition Workforce, Small Business Programs, Internal Review (IR), the Director of Property and Fiscal Operations (USPFO), the Joint Continuous Process Improvement Program, and Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights. As the Comptroller, Mr. Cabrera also oversees financial management and resourcing matters related to the National Guard Bureau, the Army and Air National Guard, and the Joint Staff.

Prior to coming to the National Guard Bureau, Mr. Cabrera worked at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in the office of the Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer and the Intelligence Community Information Sharing Executive. Mr. Cabrera led the team that created the first Intelligence Community Office of Facilitation and Resolution, the office responsible for identifying and resolving information sharing disputes within the Intelligence Community, and worked on numerous Intelligence Community Information Sharing issues. In 2004, he served in the Pentagon with the Future Total Force Division, Directorate of Strategic Planning, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs, Headquarters United States Air Force, where he developed integrated organizational constructs that enabled the active Air Force and the Air National Guard to co-locate at strategically selected locations, now known as “Associated Units”. He also developed Air Force unit and organizational structures related to future technological capabilities in support of Homeland Defense initiatives.

Mr. Cabrera holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and a Masters in Business Administration Degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. He is a graduate of the Army War College (Correspondence), the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in National and International Security, and retired from the Army National Guard with over 37 years of duty, including almost 12 years of Active Duty. As an Armor Officer, he served in a variety of Command and Senior Staff positions. His military awards include the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Mr. Cabrera has served on the Boards of Directors of numerous nonprofit organizations related to youth development and gang prevention. He is married to the former Lynnette McGuire; they reside in Manassas, Virginia.